This summer, I found out what it was like to be an astronaut. It all started around 7:30 A.M. (central time) on Tuesday, July 26. I woke up early that morning, to feed the cat, and as I walked outside, I noticed a strange, glowing light in the bottom of the gully. At first, I just thought it was just the construction workers dumping more dirt. But as I walked over to investigate, I saw a bright, metallic flash as the sun reflected off a round, metal object, hidden in the trees. As I crept silently closer, I could see it was about 10 feet in diameter, with a small, flashing dome on top. There was strange writing along the sides, and it was making an odd humming noise. When I examined the dome, I noticed a small latch along the side. I pressed the latch, and a door opened up, and I stepped inside. I stood on the floor of the spaceship, for I had figured that that was the only thing it could be, and was awestruck by the delicate workmanship on the inside.
Someone had gone to a lot of trouble on the detail, and the overall effect was amazing. There were strange words written along lots of little buttons, and there were even some English words mixed in. As I started to explore further, there was a rumbling as the dump trucks started coming down the road. I was thrown off balance, and accidently hit the little red button marked "START". The ship immediately shot into space. As the stars flew by, the ship's picked up a small bleep to the left of the craft. I looked, and saw a very large pyramid floating next to me, with little purple men inside, yelling at me. I had apparently ran a red light, one I had not seen, and they were very mad at me. I frantically looked around for the button to take me home, but there was nothing I could see that would help me. The alien ship shot a bright, orange beam at the ship, and my little ship was sucked inside the pyramid. A little purple head came into view in front of my screen,
shortly followed by the rest of the body. The alien was short and skinny, with a large head, and long, skinny fingers. "GREST-NUP!" it said to me. "What?!?" I answered, and the alien pointed behind me, where two more aliens waited with some kind of binders, their version of handcuffs. "No way!" I said, and hit the button on my ship that said "PLEASE PUSH IN CASE OF INVASION". The aliens disappeared, and I was left alone. Then suddenly, the ship started to rock back and forth, and I was thrown against the sides. A loud growling sound emerged from outside, and the ship was tossed into space. I looked outside, and saw a very big fuzzy creature jump after me. I had apparently disintegrated the three aliens on my ship, and the rest had let loose their pet to finish me off. A blinking sound interrupted my concentration, and a little blue light on the control panel lit up. I pressed it, and a laser beam shot out from a hidden gun on the outside of the ship. I thought
that this would be a way to get rid of the fuzzy, so I targeted it and fired. The fuzzy exploded in a blaze of bright light. "All-right!" I shouted. The pyramid then started to glow dark red. I then decided that now might be a good time to leave, and started pushing buttons in a desperate attempt to get home. I hit a large, black one, and the ship turned around, and shot toward Earth, faster than the speed of light. When I got close to Earth, a program kicked in and the ship made a perfect landing where I found it. A door opened, and I stepped out onto good, solid ground.

"Where did you go?" a voice behind me said. I turned around, and saw an odd-looking stranger standing behind me.

"I don't know, sir," I replied, and the stranger answered, "I don't suppose it matters, as long as the ship is still in running condition."

"Yes, sir, it should be." I said.

"Good. The only reason I'm here is because I ran out of prune juice, and this is the only place in the galaxy that has it." Having said that, the stranger went into the ship, and the door closed on him saying "Stand back, the thrusters are backfiring again." I stepped back and turned around to watch the blast-off. As the ship left the Earth's atmosphere, I felt a little lonely. I had enjoyed the trip, except for the big fuzzy, and knew that I would always remember it.